In a comment on the Joss Whedon fansite Whedonesque, Mr. Whedon came to share the news of the show’s cancellation, but discovered he had been beaten to the punch.

Hmm. Apparently my news is not news.

I don’t have a lot to say. I’m extremely proud of the people I’ve worked with: my star, my staff, my cast, my crew. I feel the show is getting better pretty much every week, and I think you’ll agree in the coming months. I’m grateful that we got to put it on, and then come back and put it on again.

I’m off to pursue internet ventures/binge drinking. Possibly that relaxation thing I’ve read so much about. By the time the last episode airs, you’ll know what my next project is. But for now there’s a lot of work still to be done, and disappointment to bear.

Thank you all for your support, your patience, your excellent adverts. See you again. -j.

Hopefully this may mean he has the opportunity now to do a follow-up to the popular Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog which was a Web only series.

Mr. Whedon has said in previous interviews that he imagined that Dollhouse would be his last foray into television, and he was more interested in pursuing ventures on the Internet and films.  Considering what happened with Firefly and Dollhouse, and some hiccups with his biggest success Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, I can’t say as I really blame him.

Post from: SeanPAune.com

Joss Whedon Comments On Dollhouse Cancellation

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Last December I ranted about how Sunday football games were constantly throwing CBS’ Sunday night programming into chaos.  At that time I was complaining about a 32 minute delay to the evening’s programs, but that was nothing compared to tonight’s whopping 71 minute delay.  Thank you New York Jets and Buffalo Bills for throwing the game into overtime and then changing possession 500 times!

So,CBS has opted to play 60 Minutes in its entirety, meaning that Amazing Race, the show I’m waiting on, will not start until 8:11 my time.  Well, my TiVo still shows it as airing from 7 – 8, and that is when it will record, leaving me without one second of the show.

Well, I’m lucky in that I also get West coast channels, so I can still catch the show at its specified time, but since I wrote the original rant, I have learned of something that exists that would fix all of this.  Apparently there are signals that channels can send out in some countries and tell the DVRs that a show is running late and it will shift the schedule on your DVR for you automatically.  So say a show is starting 5 minutes late, the network sends out a signal and your DVR will change the settings from 7 – 8 to 7:05 – 8:05.

Why don’t we have this here?  I can’t imagine it is the complicated to do, and the technology already exists, so why isn’t it here?  Instead, people that watch any show on Sunday night on CBS are totally hosed if they set their DVRs and left their houses for the evening.  DVRs are now accounting for approximately 39 percent of all television viewing, so shouldn’t a bit more concern be given to making sure they record at the right time?

Post from: SeanPAune.com

DVRs Need Time Update Features

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It seems if you are the daughter of a former Republican presidential candidate, you are expected to dress a certain way when even in your own home, staying in for the evening.

Megan McCain, the 24-year-old daughter of John McCain, has set off a veritable storm of controversy when she chose last night to post a picture to her Twitter account of the book she was staying in and reading for the evening.  It wasn’t the book that caused the uproar, but the fact that she was wearing a tank top.

Oh no, the horrors.

What Ms. McCain that was a perfectly innocent and fun photo led to an evening of her being called a “slut”, and in turn, her having to defend her choices of what she chooses to wear in her own home.  What follows is her responses to her followers, strong language left intact for impact (if they seem broken up, remember you are only allowed 140 characters per message, or Tweet):

so I took a fun picture not thinking anything about what I was wearing but apparently anything other than a pantsuit I am a slut, this is

why I have been considering deleting my twitter account, what once was fun now just seems like a vessel for harassment

I am going to take some more time to think about it but seriously I was just trying to be funny with the book and that I’m a dork staying in

when I am alone in my apartment, I wear tank tops and sweat pants, I had no idea this makes me a “slut”, I can’t even tell you how hurt I am

ok I am getting the fuck off twitter, promise not to delete my account until I sleep on it, thank you for the nice words supporters

I do want to apologize to anyone that was offended by my twitpic, I have clearly made a huge mistake and am sorry 2 those that are offended.

I guess I can clearly define myself as not being a prude at this point. Was the tank top tight? Yes. Is her choice to wear this in the privacy of her own home validation for calling her a “slut”? Not even close.

Yes, she opted to take a picture of herself and share it with her 60,000+ Twitter followers, but big freakin’ deal. I have a news flash for every one out there: Meghan McCain is a female and females have these things called “breasts”, and sometimes, just sometimes, they are partially visible.  Just because a woman’s breasts are visible does not instantly equate her with being a “slut,” although it would seem that some people have a hard time with this concept.

To be honest, I wasn’t even aware Ms. McCain had a Twitter account until this morning, but I’m following her now.  Why?  Because anyone who gets verbally attacked like this over something as simple as opting to wear a tank top (while staying in for a night to read a book … I can’t get over that part) deserves support.  This is the 21st century folks, not Victorian times where cloth doilies were placed around the feet of furniture because it might remind men of a woman’s bare ankle.  (Think I’m kidding?  Look it up.)  Shall we return to a time where women wore floor length skirts so men would never see something as scandalous as a woman’s foot?

Kim LaCapria over at The Inquisitr said it well:

… and here’s to hoping Meghan comes around and sees the criticism for what it really is and doesn’t quit Twitter. None of us like pantsuits, Meghan, and we need women like you to kill them good and dead for the rest of us. You can never Spanx away big tits and a curvy ass, and whole nation of voluptuous women need you to not apologize for your breasts so we don’t have to apologize for ours. Keep fighting the good fight!

True, I don’t have the “voluptuous” problem Kim mentions here, but I agree with her overall point.  They’re breasts folks, they aren’t going anywhere, stop acting so shocked when you see them.

Post from: SeanPAune.com

Meghan McCain Draws Flak For Twitter Picture … Seriously?

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I really don’t want to blog daily on this whole Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guideline debacle, but it just keeps getting weirder and weirder.

First off, I finally got a link to the full 81-page document (PDF link) from Steven Hodson, and although I have only read through 51 pages thus far, this is going to be mandatory reading for every independent blogger if you want to make sure to keep yourself from getting in trouble with the FTC.  That being said, be prepared for the extreme ambiguity of the document on many fronts.

So far I have still yet to find anywhere that describes in detail how disclosures are supposed to be written.  It mentions numerous times that you must disclose if you receive a product for free and then give it a positive review (there is some implication that disclosure is not required on negative reviews), but nowhere does it say how are exactly where it is to be placed.

The document also discusses new rules for celebrity endorsements and how they are supposed to disclose their relationship with anything they speak positively of.  The problem with this is that at no time do they define what a celebrity is.  On tonight’s episode of CobWEBs, Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins and I discussed this, and technically you could call iJustine a celebrity, but that is only to a handful of people on the Internet.  Heck, there was even a time when I was working for Wizard magazine that I was being asked for my autograph on a regular basis, would that have qualified me as a celebrity?  I was a celebrity to those people, but not to the other 99.999999999% of the population of the country, but would I have qualified for the FTC celebrity rules?  Who knows, their answers are so vague.

Then to muddy the waters even further, Richard Cleland, assistant director, division of advertising practices at the FTC (and someone Rizzn has been trying to get an interview with for 3 months with no luck) spoke with FastCompany, and made some of the most mind boggling statements ever.

Heather B. Armstrong, author of parenting blog Dooce: “Eleven thousand dollars is a little crazy for a post. Maybe I’m being naïve, but I think a lot of people who are in violation [of not disclosing] just don’t know that they’re supposed to.”

Richard Cleland: “That $11,000 fine is not true. Worst-case scenario, someone receives a warning, refuses to comply, followed by a serious product defect; we would institute a proceeding with a cease-and-desist order and mandate compliance with the law…

Excuse me?  When did the FTC start writing laws?  They are a regulatory body, they are not capable of making “laws”.  Perhaps he was misquoted, but if the FTC really sees this as “law”, we’re in bigger trouble than any of us first thought.

Brian Lam, editorial director of Gizmodo: “Some colleagues of mine just reminded me of how many freelance pro journalists take junkets. In the end, I’m glad these rules are being introduced, but it’s kind of stupid to attach unethical behavior to a particular publishing medium. Look at how shitty TV journalism can be, by and large.”

RC: “It’s not the medium, it’s the message. We want to establish a self-imposed ethical standard so people are aware of the conflicts of interest…

“We want to establish a self-imposed…” um … which part of this sentence makes any sense?  How does person #2 establish SELF-IMPOSED anything on person #1?

This is what we are dealing with folks: vagueness, ambiguity and a regulatory body that seems to have no clue what its actual job is.  If you aren’t scared yet, you aren’t thinking.

Post from: SeanPAune.com

The Full FTC Guidelines Make Your Head Hurt

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In all of the hoopla yesterday, Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins, Steven Hodson and myself ran into many instances of being questioned over our vehement hatred of the new guidelines, and also more examples of just how messed up this whole thing is.

“Print media is already under these rules.”

No, they aren’t.

This was the most tired argument I have seen, and it simply isn’t true.  If this was true, I want you to point out to me where movie reviewers disclose that they got into a movie for free or got sent a DVD copy of the movie for free.  We all know it happens, but have you ever seen them disclose it?  Same goes for book, movie and DVD reviews.

Now, under these new FTC rules, if I decide to review anything, and if it was sent to me for free, then I have to write a disclosure every single time I do it.  Tell me how these are the same rules traditional media has been under.

“Facebook and Twitter fall under these rules also.”

Yep, all that fun you have on social media sites?  Well, prepare yourself to always disclose your relationship for any product you speak positively of.

Caroline McCarthy of CNET spoke with a Richard Cleland, associate director for the FTC’s advertising division, and here is the scenario he set up to explain the Facebook scenario:

Here’s a sample scenario: a celebrity or other prominent figure with loads of friends on Facebook receives free hotel says [sic] from Hotel Chain X in exchange for running Hotel Chain X ads on his or her blog. If that person then signs up as a Facebook fan of Hotel Chain X–which, remember, could mean that the person’s name can show up for his or her Facebook friends alongside Hotel Chain X display ads on the social network–he or she could be held liable by the FTC.

“It would be the same thing if you were going to pay the celebrity a thousand dollars to go register as a fan,” Cleland said. “In that case, there wouldn’t be any question about it.”

And as for new media darling Twitter?

As for Twitter, the FTC isn’t letting you get a pass with the excuse that 140 characters–Twitter’s famous text limit–is simply too short. “There are ways to abbreviate a disclosure that fit within 140 characters,” Cleland said. “You may have to say a little bit of something else, but if you can’t make the disclosure, you can’t make the ad.”

So, think you will be exempt from this if you aren’t a blogger.  Too bad.  If you have any sort of relationship with a product, and you make a comment anywhere on the Web about it, you better be prepared to disclose your relationship.

“This is all about going after sploggers.”

No, it isn’t.

In a discussion between Steven Hodson and Matt Cutts of Google on The Noisy Channel, they brought up the discussion of how this will cut out bad marketing:

Steven: “No degree of FTC intervention is going to make any difference to splogs or other such garbage…”

Matt: At a respected search conference last year, I sat in the audience and watched a presenter recommend “sock puppet” marketing by coming up with fake personas to promote products. With this new guidance from the FTC (plus similar recent guidance in the UK/EU against sock puppet marketing), that sort of bad advice will be much less likely to appear at search conferences. That’s one easy counter-example.

No, Matt, it isn’t.  You are talking about advice given at a conference, big deal.  The Sock Puppet marketers will simply start hiring people from Africa and India off of GetAFreelancer or other such sites and have them do that sort of marketing far from the reach of the USA, UK or EU.

And that is one of my biggest complaints about this whole thing is that the unethical people it is supposedly targeting will just find new ways of working around it, while those of us who follow ethical blogging and online presence will be saddled with these idiotic new rules, libing under fear of some little slip up costing us a potential $11,000 fine.  Oh yeah, that makes things so much better.

“This will stop all those fake review sites.”

Are you kidding me?

Lets say that an “unethical” blogger is currently working out of the USA with their web site on servers that reside in the USA.  They want to get away from these new rules so they move their site to servers in another country, they put privacy protection on their domain name and then they sit back.

The FTC finds them lacking disclosure, they will have to get a court order to reveal the name of the person who holds the ownership of the domain.  So the FTC will have to weight taking the time to get the court order, and in some cases they will have to go through a court in another country, is it really worth all of that effort, time and taxpayer money for a possibly undisclosed material relationship?  You guessed it, I would go with “no.”  Of course, that doesn’t mean they won’t try.

All of the “bad” sites will simply move off shore to countries that don’t care about all of this hoopla, and the innocent people will yet again be left to jumping through hoops that should have never been required.

“This system is ripe for abuse.”

Yes, it is.

We have no clue what the investigation process will be like yet, but what is to stop people from reporting you for fun or revenge?  ”Oh, hey, I think so-and-so has a relationship with that company they just posted abut on Facebook.”  Oh won’t that be fun to defend yourself from false accusations?  This is why some people will be better off even disclosing when they purchased something to cut off any possible questioning to avoid any sense in impropriety.

In other words, people will be so annoyed by having to watch their behinds that they simply won’t want to talk any more.

“Aren’t you worrying about this too much?”

No, I’m not.

I have done more reading today, and the tone of the conversations have changed quite a bit in the second day.  Check out SiliconANGLE’s FTC vs. the Blogosphere Day 2 Roundup to get a better sense of what is being said everywhere.  (disclosure: I am linked to in that article and I work for SiliconANGLE … see … won’t that get annoying?)

Also make sure to check out Steven Hodson’s questions that he is still waiting for answers to:

1. Will these same ‘guidelines’ be applied against “traditional media” and if not – why not?

2. What exact form do these disclosure need to take? Per post? Per page? Per comment?

3. Is this retroactive? Does this mean that sites like Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Mashable, – well every single blog past and present will have to go through all their archives and add a disclaimer. Because we all know that posts that are even months or years old can resurface.

4.Will book publishers make signing a disclosure form a part of bloggers doing book reviews and is it really worth the effort at that point?

5. Does the country of origin of the writer matter as to whether a disclosure is included?

6. Does it matter the country of origin of where the blog served from come into play?

7 Does the country of origin of the product, service or book come into play at all?

(disclaimer: I know Steven and make fun of his Canadian citizenship on a regular basis)

The FTC has got to start defining this whole thing better, but somehow I don’t see that coming any time soon.

Post from: SeanPAune.com

The FTC Situation Just Keeps Getting Worse

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The iPod Touch was introduced in September 2007 as an alternative to the iPhone for those that wanted the bonus features of the phone.  It was a great idea, people who avoided the iPhone for various reasons snapped it up, and the device has now taken on a life of its own as a handy PDA, and quite often as an “add-on” to BlackBerry users, such as myself.

In 2008 the iPod Touch received an update along with all of the other iPods.  The only additions were an external speaker, some physical volume controls and an upping of the devices memory capacity.  There was nothing quite compelling enough to get owners of the first generation Touches to update, so everyone looked forward to this year to bring a lot of updates to the device.

Well, Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, has returned from his medical leave, and as his first public duty since his liver transplant, he introduced this year’s new iPod line-up.  And, once again, the iPod Touch got the shaft.

While rumors had been mounting of the iPod Touch getting a camera and an external microphone, instead what we got was a faster processor and another increase in memory.

… really?  That’s it?

One of the cornerstones of the iPod sales success all these years is doing enough changes to them each year to make people want to constantly keep upgrading.  Well, seeing as the run down of upgrade since generaiton 1 iPod Touches is as follows

• External speaker
• Physical volume controls
• Faster processor
• Increased memory capacity

Where is the motivation for anyone to upgrade?  Sure, all of those things would be nice to have, but none of them are a “killer upgrade” that just makes me go crazy without it.  The most exciting thing to happen to the iPod Touch today is that you can now manage your applications inside of iTunes instead of dragging your finger all over the screen.  Whee.  And guess what, it works in my first generation iPod Touch, so it still isn’t a reason to upgrade.

Don’t get me wrong, if my iPod Touch was to die, I would immediately buy another one, they are great devices.  All this means is that I think Steve Jobs has forgotten how he created that early success in this product line: repeat customers.  In all honesty, Apple did me a favor today, they actually saved me from spending any money, so perhaps I should thank them for constantly doing silly upgrades no one really needs to the iPod Touch.  Thanks,Apple!

Post from: SeanPAune.com

Apple Keeps Getting The iPod Touch Wrong

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Spotify is a fairly young music service that launched on Oct. 7, 2008 in Western Europe.  While it has been in its invitation only beta stage the service has stayed tied to Europe for licensing reasons, but a United States release is expected in the not too distant future.

So, why is this service a game changer?  Well, the answer is pretty simple in that with the licensing agreements the service has struck you can essentially pull up any song by any artist at any time and listen to it.  If you want a free account you will have to go through advertisements every so often, but if you have a paid account you don’t even see the ads and can enjoy endless musical selections of all your favorite performers.

Where Spotify is really set to change the game is with its just released iPhone & iPod Touch and Android applications.  The apps, just released today, is only for use by the paying customers, but one feature alone may be worth it.  I have embedded the demo video below for you to watch, but essentially you make a playlist of your favorite music, tell the Spotify app you want that playlist to be available while you have no 3G or Wi-Fi access (i.e. on an airplane), and it will save the music to your device memory so you can play all of the selected tracks while you aren’t near a connection.

Now mind you that you do not own these tracks, and they can’t be transferred off of your device, but who will ever need to buy music anymore when you can just have a monthly Spotify subscription and make a bunch of offline playlists?

While I have been a huge fan of services such as Pandora for ages, the problem is that I need to have some form of access to listen to it.  I also have no say in what songs come up on Pandora, but with Spotify I can have access to a basically limitless stream of music from just about any artist you can think of.  Once this hits the United States, you don’t think this is going to be the most talked about music service on every college and university campus?

Take a look at the video and I think you’ll quickly why this is such a huge game changer for the mobile music market, and quite possibly the music industry as a whole.

Post from: SeanPAune.com

Spotify May Change Music As We Know It

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I am WAY behind in posting this, but in this episode Steven Hodson, Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins, my fellow Cynical Bastards, and myself took on, a full load of subjects, and got in a good amount of Gillmor’ing.

- Microsoft and Yahoo FINALLY consumate their relationship… it got to where I felt like I was watching one of my soap operas!

- Mommy Bloggers go to new hieghts of entitletement with “SwagGate” at the Blog Her conference

- Google and Apple go head to head over the Google Voice App.

- The Apple Tablet and CrunchPad are probably going to battle it out in the market, but who will win?

- Yet another person is “honored” with the Dickwad of the Week award.

Push the big green button and have a listen.

Post from: SeanPAune.com

CobWEBs Episode 16 – They Finally Did It!

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While I am never going to endorse the use of illegal torrent files, let me give you all a clue here: if you find a torrent through a public search engine such as Google, there’s a good chance that it either contains a virus or may be a trap to track your IP address.  HBO has been fairly strict about hunting down torrent users in the past, so if you’re going to use a public search to find a publicly reachable file… it kinda screams “TRAP” to me.

I know a lot of people have turned to torrents as an option for watching their favorite television shows, but do yourself a favor and at least educate yourself about general safety of their use if you’re going to do it.  And, honestly, unless it is something like True Blood, just don’t do it (even then, don’t do it), there are too many legal ways to watch TV shows on the Internet for freenow.

Post from: SeanPAune.com

Don’t Use Google To Search For Illegal Files You Morons

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I know the BlackBerry isn’t as sexy as the iPhone, but until Apple and AT&T part ways, it’s what I’m sticking with.  I’ve been using my BlackBerry 8830 since October 2007, and while I’ve loved it, I’ve been getting that upgrade itch.  As I was looking around for my next phone, I wasn’t finding anything I liked, and was actually starting to wonder what I was going to do when my upgrade time was officially upon me.

Enter the BlackBery Tour.

Also known as the 9630, the BlackBerry Tour is the direct successor to my 8830 in that it is the next generation of world phone.  This means that due to the multiple bands the phone uses, I can use the phone in 185 countries around the planet.  For those who have not had the fun experience of travelling with your cell phone to other countries… they don’t work.  The United States decided to be different from the rest of the world… just like that damned metric system.  So your phone is pretty much useless outside of our country, so this makes life far easier.  Not that I travel outside the USA that often, but it’s still nice to have.

They really went all out on this upgrade, and I am most excited about the camera as that has been one of the things I have really wanting in my next phone.  Here is the official list from the press release.

• 3.2 MP camera with flash, variable zoom, image stabilization, autofocus and video recording(i)
• Full HTML web browser, including support for streaming audio and video (RTSP)
• Advanced media player for videos, pictures and music, a 3.5 mm stereo headset jack and support for the Bluetooth(R) Stereo Audio Profile (A2DP/AVCRP)
• 256MB Flash memory
• Expandable memory via hot swappable microSD/SDHC memory card slot, supporting cards of up to 16 GB today and expected to support next generation 32GB cards when available
• Built-in GPS with support for geotagging, BlackBerry(R) Maps and other location based applications and services
• BlackBerry(R) Media Sync allows customers to quickly and easily synch music from iTunes(R) and Windows Media Player with the smartphone(ii)
• Premium phone features including voice activated dialing, enhanced background noise cancellation, a low-distortion speakerphone, and Bluetooth (2.0) support for hands-free use with headsets, car kits, stereo headsets and other Bluetooth peripherals
• Preloaded DataViz(R) Documents to Go(R), allowing users to edit Microsoft(R) Word, Excel and PowerPoint files directly on the handset
• Easy mobile access to Facebook(R), MySpace and Flickr(R), as well as popular instant messaging services including BlackBerry(R) Messenger, Yahoo!(R) IM, AIM(R), Google Talk and Windows Live Messenger(TM)
• Support for BlackBerry App World(TM), featuring a broad and growing catalog of third-party mobile applications developed specifically for BlackBerry smartphones. Categories include travel, productivity, entertainment, games, social networking & sharing, news & weather, and more
• BlackBerry(R) Internet Service allows access to up to 10 supported personal and corporate email accounts, including most popular ISP email accounts
• BlackBerry(R) Enterprise Server provides advanced security and IT administration features within IBM(R) Lotus(R) Domino(R), Microsoft(R) Exchange and Novell(R) GroupWise(R) environments
• Removable and rechargeable 1400 mAhr battery for 5 hours of talk time and 14 days of standby time

I am really excited about how many of the new features used to be optional applications, so nice to see they are watching how their users are really using the phone out in the wild.

Rumor is the phone will be release July 13th, and even though my 2 year contract isn’t up until October, they’ve already approved me for the upgrade price of $199 (it probably helps we have five lines on our account at Sprint…).  I’m ready for it, and thanks RIM for the unbelievable timing of the release.

Post from: SeanPAune.com

Talk About Timing!

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